Text:

Instead of hoi de ‘but those’ before akolothountes ‘(who) were following’ of most modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick have kai ‘and.’ Thus the meaning is changed to … ‘and following (they were afraid).’

Exegesis:

There is general agreement that the subject of ‘they were going up to Jerusalem’ is ‘Jesus and his disciples’; that the subject of ‘they were amazed’ is ‘the disciples’; and that ‘but those (others) who were following were afraid’ refers to people other than the disciples.

Most of the words of this verse have already been dealt with: for anabainō ‘go up’ cf. 1.10; proagō ‘precede,’ ‘go ahead’ cf. 6.45; thambeomai ‘be amazed’ cf. 1.27; akoloutheō ‘follow’ (here in a physical sense) cf. 1.18; phobeomai ‘be afraid’ cf. 4.41; paralambanō ‘take along,’ ‘take aside’ cf. 4.36; hoi dōdeka ‘the Twelve’ cf. 3.16.

ēsan de en tē hodō anabainontes eis Ierosoluma ‘they were on the road going up to Jerusalem’: it is probable (with Revised Standard Version) that ēsan ‘they were’ is the main verb, and anabainontes ‘going up’ is an independent participle, modifying ‘they.’

en tē hodō (cf. 8.3, 27) ‘in the road,’ ‘on the journey.’

anabainontes eis Ierosoluma ‘going up to Jerusalem’ cf. ‘those who came down from Jerusalem’ in 3.22.

ta mellonta autō sumbainein ‘the things that were to happen to him.’

mellō (13.4) ‘about to be (or, happen),’ ‘coming,’ ‘future’: the verb denotes something in the future which is about to take place; often, however (as here), more than mere time is implied: there is the quality of “compulsion, necessity or certainty” (Abbott-Smith), so that the participial form to mellon does not mean simply ‘the thing that will happen (in the future)’ but ‘something that must take place,’ ‘something that is bound to happen.’ Arndt & Gingrich: “an action that necessarily follows a divine decree, is destined, must, will certainly.”

sumbainō (only here in Mark) ‘happen,’ ‘come about.’

Translation:

Were on the road must often be rendered ‘traveling on the road.’

They must be so translated as to identify Jesus and those with him, not the immediately preceding third person plural ‘the many’ of verse 31, or those who will receive the hundredfold. Accordingly, one may translate ‘Jesus and those with him were journeying along.’

Going up to is generally used of traveling to Jerusalem because of the greater height of Jerusalem relative to the surrounding region, especially Jericho (see verse 45). However, at this point they were not evidently in the ascent from the Jordan valley, for the episode described as near Jericho occurs later in the chapter.

Ahead of them may actually be ‘ahead of the rest’ in some languages, for Jesus is contrasted with the disciples and the following crowd.

They, as the subject of were amazed, may be translated as ‘the disciples,’ if a more specific subject is required.

For amazed see 1.22, 27.

Taking the twelve refers to ‘going aside with the twelve disciples’ or ‘leading aside the twelve disciples’ (cf. 3.14; 4.10).

Happen to him may in some languages be translated as active, from the perspective of the person undergoing the events, e.g. ‘what he would experience.’ In other languages what would happen to is best translated as ‘what men would do to.’

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .